The Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen said on Sunday it had targeted Houthi rebel positions in the capital Sana’a, the day after the launch of a “large-scale” Saudi military operation in the warring country.
Read alsoYemen threatened with implosion after seven years of war
The coalition, which since 2015 has supported the Yemeni government in its war against rebels close to Iran, claimed to have destroyed weapons warehouses in the Houthi-held capital, the official Saudi agency SPA reported.
Since the conflict erupted seven years ago, the Houthis have gradually taken control of a large part of northern Yemen despite the intervention of the military coalition, which in recent days has stepped up its airstrikes. “Operation in Sana’a was an immediate response to an attempt to transfer weapons from camp al-Tashrifat to Sana’aThe coalition said in a statement. She also said she would show evidence that the Lebanese pro-Iran Hezbollah movement is involved in the conflict in Yemen at a press conference scheduled to take place on Sunday.
The coalition will present “evidence showing that Hezbollah is using (Sana’a) airport to target the kingdom“, According to SPA. Saudi Arabia has long accused Iran of providing arms to the Houthis and Hezbollah of training insurgents. If Tehran recognizes its political support for the rebels, it denies providing them with weapons. On Twitter, Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to Yemen Mohammed al-Jaber on Saturday compared the Houthis to Hezbollah, saying they are using Iranian weapons to attack his country.
On Thursday, the US Navy announced that it had seized 1,400 AK-47 assault rifles and ammunition from a fishing boat it said it left Iran for the Yemeni rebels.
Attacks “barbarians“
The conflict has intensified in Yemen in recent days, with Saudi Arabia launching a military operation on Saturday “in large scaleIn the country after two people were killed and seven injured in its own territory, in an attack claimed by the Houthis.
While Yemeni rebels regularly launch missiles and drones into neighboring Saudi Arabia, targeting its airports and oil infrastructure, it was the first fatal attack on the kingdom since 2018. In retaliation, three people were killed and six others were killed. injured, according to Yemeni doctors, in coalition airstrikes northwest of Sana’a.
Coalition raids this week had already resulted in the closure of the capital’s airport, including humanitarian flights, the only ones allowed until then.
The recent Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia have been condemned by several countries, including the United States and France. These attacks “perpetuate the conflict, prolong the suffering of the Yemeni people and endanger the Saudis, as well as the 70,000 American nationals who reside in Arabia», Indicated the embassy of the United States in Riyadh in a press release on Saturday. In a tweet, the French Ambassador, Ludovic Pouille, for his part offered his condolences to the Saudi families affected by the rebel attacks he described as “barbarians“.
Read alsoYemen: Sanaa airport closed to humanitarian flights due to Saudi raids
According to the United Nations, the war in Yemen has caused the death of 377,000 people, more than half of them due to the indirect consequences of the conflict, including lack of clean water, hunger and disease. On Wednesday, the UN World Food Program said “constrained»Cut aid to Yemen for lack of sufficient funds, despite rising hunger and the risk of famine in what remains one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.